May Cruise..so many questions!

[manda0125]

Hi Everyone!
I hope I am posting this in the correct area! Anyways, my husband and I are planning a trip on the Disney cruise May 16-20 2010. We are taking the 4 night (Sun-Thurs) cruise on the Wonder. This will be my first cruise! There is so much information and my head has been spinning! So here comes the laundry list of questions!

I'm going to start backwards! We want to go to Disney World for a few days when we get back into port on Thurs. That being said how would I get to Disney World? Would we have to rent a car? Do they have shuttles (Magical Express) to take you to your hotel?

I read that there is a semi formal night and I have seen pictires of people really dressed up! Is black tie the way to go? I have a dressy black top and black pants is that ok? Is a suit ok for my husband? I am worried we are going to look under dressed the entire time!

I also read that dinner is on a rotation and you sit with other people. Not to sound unfriendly but can you request not to sit with other people?

I know you have to make your own reservations for Palo, but how do you know what time to make the reservation so you don't miss anything? For example what if it's pirate theme night and you have dinner at Palo?

Excursions- We have a day at Nassau and I was reading about Atlantis. There are two Atlantis options one seems to give you more free range of the resort. Has anyone done this day trip? Is it worth it?

I'm sorry for all the questions! But one minute I am excited to go and the next I think it would be easier just to go to Disney World! I have the Birnbaums book and it helped a little. My husband just keeps telling me I am over analyzing, and that we will be free to do whatever whenever we want! Any suggestions or advice would be great! Thanks for listening!
Manda

 

[87 GN]

I'm going to start backwards! We want to go to Disney World for a few days when we get back into port on Thurs. That being said how would I get to Disney World? Would we have to rent a car? Do they have shuttles (Magical Express) to take you to your hotel?

I believe if your staying in the park you can set it up with the cruise line to take you back to Disney on the cruise line bus. We went on a 4 day cruise also from the park we had a 3 day land - 4 night cruise. I would call and set it up ahead of time.

I read that there is a semi formal night and I have seen pictires of people really dressed up! Is black tie the way to go? I have a dressy black top and black pants is that ok? Is a suit ok for my husband? I am worried we are going to look under dressed the entire time!

You will both be fine dressed like that, some get really dresses others not as much. I wore a gray suit jacket and black pants, my wife wore a light sun dress type outfit.

I also read that dinner is on a rotation and you sit with other people. Not to sound unfriendly but can you request not to sit with other people?

The idea of the cruise dinner is to meet and mingle. The dinners are rotational to the differant resturants but we stayed with the same table of people our whole trip. It was very fun, but I believe they will try to accomidate any requests if possible.

I know you have to make your own reservations for Palo, but how do you know what time to make the reservation so you don't miss anything? For example what if it's pirate theme night and you have dinner at Palo?

Call the cruise line, they should be able to tell you the night pirate night is upon making a reservation so you dont miss anything.

Excursions- We have a day at Nassau and I was reading about Atlantis. There are two Atlantis options one seems to give you more free range of the resort. Has anyone done this day trip? Is it worth it?

We did the aquarium excursion it left us free to do whatever until we wanted to go back but it was raining and thundering so all the water type activities were closed as well as the beach area. Never got to those sections so I dont know if they are free or not?

 

[manda0125]

Thanks!

Thank you so much! This is a big help!

 

[Disneyfalcon]

Hi Everyone!
I hope I am posting this in the correct area! Anyways, my husband and I are planning a trip on the Disney cruise May 16-20 2010. We are taking the 4 night (Sun-Thurs) cruise on the Wonder. This will be my first cruise! There is so much information and my head has been spinning! So here comes the laundry list of questions!

I'm going to start backwards! We want to go to Disney World for a few days when we get back into port on Thurs. That being said how would I get to Disney World? Would we have to rent a car? Do they have shuttles (Magical Express) to take you to your hotel?

I read that there is a semi formal night and I have seen pictires of people really dressed up! Is black tie the way to go? I have a dressy black top and black pants is that ok? Is a suit ok for my husband? I am worried we are going to look under dressed the entire time!

I also read that dinner is on a rotation and you sit with other people. Not to sound unfriendly but can you request not to sit with other people?

I know you have to make your own reservations for Palo, but how do you know what time to make the reservation so you don't miss anything? For example what if it's pirate theme night and you have dinner at Palo?

Excursions- We have a day at Nassau and I was reading about Atlantis. There are two Atlantis options one seems to give you more free range of the resort. Has anyone done this day trip? Is it worth it?

I'm sorry for all the questions! But one minute I am excited to go and the next I think it would be easier just to go to Disney World! I have the Birnbaums book and it helped a little. My husband just keeps telling me I am over analyzing, and that we will be free to do whatever whenever we want! Any suggestions or advice would be great! Thanks for listening!
Manda

I think 87 GN answered most of your questions, but I'll see if I have any more. We just got back from a 7 night a week and a half ago.

Once the 2010 Land and Sea packages have been released you might want to check into them. Sometimes there are good deals when you book them together. Usually it's cheaper to do it seperately, but it woudn't hurt to check.

You can book Disney transfers to take you back to Disney World. It would probably be cheaper to rent a car, but the transfers are very convenient.

The 4 night cruises don't really have a semi formal night, it's really more of a dress up night. That being said, several people get very dressed up. I went on a 4 night cruise in January with three friends and we all wore cocktail type dresses. We didn't feel overdressed at all. The attire you are describing would fit in perfectly too. There's a pretty big range of dress up that night.

If you don't want to sit with anyone else, you can go request it when you board. A table for two would be rare though.

On a 4 night, the first night is casual, the second is dress up (a good night for Palo), the third is pirate, and the fourth is casual. The second and third night you will repeat the same restaurant so it's a good night to miss. The hitch there, is you don't want to miss Animators the first time you eat there, that's the show night. Eating at Palo on the third night will still allow you to participate in pirate night. You would only miss the dinner portion. The pirate party, fireworks and buffet are later in the night.

I have done Atlantis on my own. Some of the Disney excursions allow you to see it all, others do not. If you book a room at the Comfort Suites in Nassau, you can use all of the Atlantis facilities. Normally you save a fortune, but with just two of you, Disney might not be that much more and may be the way to go. We had a great time at Atlantis, I would definitely recommend it.

Don't stress too much. A Disney cruise is an awesome vacation. I've got a trip report going on the trip report board if you're interested.

 

[manda0125]

Felling better

Thanks Disneyfalcon! I have been reading your trip report! It looks like a lot of fun! I feel so much better. The books and website are very informative but I think hearing first hand from people is an even bigger help. We are hoping to book the end of this month!
Thanks again!

 

[Disneyfalcon]

Thanks Disneyfalcon! I have been reading your trip report! It looks like a lot of fun! I feel so much better. The books and website are very informative but I think hearing first hand from people is an even bigger help. We are hoping to book the end of this month!
Thanks again!

I agree, I think past cruisers can give you a lot more insight then some of the books.

 

[Phonedave]

Hi Everyone!
I hope I am posting this in the correct area! Anyways, my husband and I are planning a trip on the Disney cruise May 16-20 2010. We are taking the 4 night (Sun-Thurs) cruise on the Wonder. This will be my first cruise! There is so much information and my head has been spinning! So here comes the laundry list of questions!

No head splitting, this is fun !

I'm going to start backwards! We want to go to Disney World for a few days when we get back into port on Thurs. That being said how would I get to Disney World? Would we have to rent a car? Do they have shuttles (Magical Express) to take you to your hotel?

The Disney bus is about $35 per person each way. Car Service is about $150. You can rent a car one way for between $40-$50. (Thanks to Marie at Kingdon Konsultants for checking those prices out for me on my cruise )

I read that there is a semi formal night and I have seen pictires of people really dressed up! Is black tie the way to go? I have a dressy black top and black pants is that ok? Is a suit ok for my husband? I am worried we are going to look under dressed the entire time!

There is a FORMAL night on the 7 night cruises. On the 3 and 4 night cruises there is only a SEMI formal night. I am guessing you saw pictures of the FORMAL night. I wear a sport coat, tie, and slacks on Semi Formal night. My kids wear nice print dresses. I have seen people in slacks and a polo shirt at semi-formal nights.

I also read that dinner is on a rotation and you sit with other people. Not to sound unfriendly but can you request not to sit with other people?

You rotate what dining room you are in each nite - not who you sit with. You sit with the same people each night. Most cruises are like this, part of the fun is that you usualy end up making friends with your table mates by the end of the cruise. As was said, if you want to eat alone, you can request it, but chances are slim.

I know you have to make your own reservations for Palo, but how do you know what time to make the reservation so you don't miss anything? For example what if it's pirate theme night and you have dinner at Palo?

On a four night cruse you will hit each dining room once, and double up on one of them. When you board you will know your dining rotation and can make reservations accordingly.

Excursions- We have a day at Nassau and I was reading about Atlantis. There are two Atlantis options one seems to give you more free range of the resort. Has anyone done this day trip? Is it worth it?

I have never done the Atlantis excursion, but our table mates did (see how that works out ) and they said they enjoyed it. We ended up doing the Stingray Adventure. This time we are booked for the Dolphin Swim (yeah, I am a sucker)

I'm sorry for all the questions! But one minute I am excited to go and the next I think it would be easier just to go to Disney World! I have the Birnbaums book and it helped a little. My husband just keeps telling me I am over analyzing, and that we will be free to do whatever whenever we want! Any suggestions or advice would be great! Thanks for listening!
Manda

One suggestion is to get to the cruise port early. That way you get on the ship as soon as it "opens" and you can hit the excursion desk before everything is booked, and you can make your Paolo reservation. If you are taking the Disney bus to the cruise port, be aware that it will get you there whenever it is scheduled, not necessarly early. I advocate either taking car service or a one way rental and getting process through the check-in nice and early, so as soon as they open that gangplank you can get on board while 90% of the people are still waiting to go though check-in

-dave

 

[mickey7879]

I sent you an email.

 

[manda0125]

May

mickey7879- sorry but I didn't realize my old e-mail address was on file. I have updated it if you want to e-mail me again!
Thanks for all the help!!